Richard Spoor is the lawyer who has taken the largest class action in South African history, representing the 18,000 former workers in the gold mines. He is seeking compensation on their behalf for silicosis. He says that even now the mining companies need to do more to protect the health of employees. Both government and the industry are aware of the issues, he says, but neither side has yet taken responsibility.

No consequences

In a recent radio interview, according to Africa.com, he said: 'The silicosis epidemic is the largest and longest running industrial disaster in modern history. It’s been running for well over 100 years and in that period hundreds of thousands of mine workers in gold mines in particular have been disabled and have died as a result of this illness….What we have is generations of mine workers… coming to the mines as young healthy men and leaving after 10,15, 20 years broken, damaged, diseased and often in coffins…The situation has persisted all these years because there are no consequences to the employers of killing nameless workers. There are no criminal consequences, there are no civil consequences. As a result this disaster has just kept going.'